Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Fun Stat on Harrison’s Reelection!

We rejoice with Rev. Matthew Harrison in his reelection as President of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. As I said before, he is a lifelong advocate of reverent worship and is faithfully leading our Synod toward compliance with AC XIV. I also said that this election was a referendum on AC XIV and the plan to end the Licensed Lay Deacons program. The other two candidates were for the LLD program and against the Harrison team's plan to end it. But Harrison was reelected, resoundingly. How resoundingly? Let's do the math. From the official press release.David P. E. Maier 393 votes (6.38%)Dale A. Meyer 2,257 votes (36.66%)Total Electorate:7,348Percentage Voted:83.79%

For President:Matthew C. Harrison3,507 votes (56.96%)

Total Votes Cast: 6,157

So there were a total of 1,191 people who chose not to vote. What if all of them had voted for the second place finisher? Then his vote total would have risen to 3,448. Still short of the Harrison mark. And, of course, it's folly to assume that 100% of the outstanding votes would have gone to any one candidate.

The presidential electors are the widest possible representative vote we have in our polity. The delegates to the convention, a group about 1/6 that size, should hear this message loud and clear. As should the floor committees putting the final touches on various resolutions - especially the LLD resolution (13-02). Harrison provided direct leadership on this (see his speech from our conference), even while a full third of the COP were signing letters questioning his leadership, and truly scurrilous attacks were being made against him by former officials. Now the Synod has spoken.